A surgical field, as found in a typical hospital's operating room, is an environmentally controlled area where the risk of infection from naturally occurring organisms is minimized. The environment's "cleanliness" is controlled by limiting the introduction of infection-creating organisms and other contaminants by maintaining strict controls over the personnel and equipment that are present in the surgical field.
One way to minimize the risk of infection to surgical patients in the operating room is with the use of equipment and personnel drapes. The drapes are placed over the patient, operating room staff and/or equipment to form a sterile barrier, keeping any microorganisms and contaminants that could cause infections from migrating to exposed tissue and open wounds. Also, the drapes prevent the bodily fluids, such as blood or lymphatic fluids, which are encountered during most surgical procedures from settling on the operating room's furniture and equipment. These fluids may become airborne when, for instance, a vein or artery is severed. In some instances, these fluids themselves may contain contaminants, such as hepatitis or staphylococcus, which can be transmitted to the other persons in the room. Likewise, these fluids may also settle on furniture or equipment of the room, which then become contaminated and a hazard to those persons who must work in the room. Instead, the airborne fluids will ultimately settle on the drapes and not on the draped furniture and equipment.
The advancement of medical procedures has correspondingly created a demand for more advanced medical equipment. Specifically, the surgical microscope has become an integral part of the operating room. As surgical procedures are becoming increasingly more complex and addressing ever smaller parts of the human anatomy, the surgical microscope has allowed the surgeon unprecedented observation of the region being operated upon. This has allowed more complex procedures to be attempted with an increased probability of success.
The surgical microscope is typically a ceiling-mounted device that may be raised or lowered and positioned over any part of the patient's body. The surgical microscope often has multiple eyepieces that permit the surgeon and others to simultaneously view the magnified area under the microscope's objective lens.
A microscope drape, used to create a sterile barrier, is typically affixed to the microscope at the lens housing of the objective lens, to orient the drape with respect to the remaining structure of the microscope. Once the microscope drape is attached to the objective lens barrel, other portions of the drape may be spread and positioned to cover the remainder of the microscope structure.
The objective lens barrels for comparable surgical microscopes of different manufacturers are often of different sizes. Thus, a microscope drape that fits the objective lens barrel of one microscope may not fit the objective lens barrel of a similar microscope made by a different manufacturer. Consequently, a larger and more expensive inventory of several different drapes is necessary to accommodate the different microscope objective lens barrels. Furthermore, several surgical microscopes have objective lens barrels that are close in size. Therefore, if an incorrect drape is accidentally used and the fit is not secure, sudden slippage of the mounting device, such as a mounting ring, into the surgical field could occur during an operation, possibly resulting in serious complications to the patient.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a more easily installed, flexible, lower cost alternative to such prior art surgical microscope operating drapes. Further, what is needed in the art are improved methods of draping a surgical microscope and methods of manufacturing a surgical microscope operating drape.